UFC launches 'UFC Select' subscription channel on YouTube

UFC content will be among the 53 initial channels in YouTube’s new plan to offer fee-based subscription content.

UFC officials today announced that the company’s “UFC Select” YouTube channel is now available for a monthly fee of $5.99 following an initial 14-day free trial.

Current plans call for the channel to feature eight new fights each week. Initial offerings include UFC 139's Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le, UFC on Versus 4's Cheick Kongo vs. Pat Barry, UFC 108's Junior dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel and UFC 103's Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin, among others.

Additionally, one complete season of “The Ultimate Fighter” will be available each month. The channel currently features all 10 episodes of “The Ultimate Fighter 13: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos.”

Episodes of “UFC Unleashed” and “Best of PRIDE” will also be hosted on the site, as well as one full UFC event replay each week.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed with sources close to the promotion that current plans call for the channel to start its event features with UFC 1 and progress chronologically. Included will be the infamous “dark ages” events that have never been released on DVD in the U.S.

The new “UFC Select” channel will not impact the promotion’s UFC.tv website, which also feature on-demand video footage, as well as live pay-per-view events.

YouTube’s paid channels are intended to create additional revenue for the video-hosting website, as well as its content partners, which number in the thousands. A report from The Wall Street Journal said paid-channel creators will keep more than 50 percent of all generated revenue, while YouTube pockets the rest.

A complete list of paid YouTube channels is available at http://www.youtube.com/channels/paid_channels.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.